How in the world can this happen?!

My main competitor for a micro niche site is number 1 on google and the site has only 1, yes ONE backlink and it's a freaking nofollow from a shitty website that also has PR 0, my competitor's site is also PR 0, how is this even possible?
It has no facebook likes, no tweeter tweets and no google plus add's.

Because all of the algorithm updates that a site with no links ranks higher. I'm facing the same thing and I think it has to do with negative SEO. You should be very careful when linking and try to have as much control over the links as possible.

But, it's so confusing and frustrating! I have other websites that are nowhere to be found without backlinks and then this madness happens and I'm like wtf, plus that site has absolutely NO value and full of adsense ads. Gosh, google must be batshit crazy

Because all of the algorithm updates that a site with no links ranks higher. I'm facing the same thing and I think it has to do with negative SEO. You should be very careful when linking and try to have as much control over the links as possible.

Panda and penguin have turned the SERPS upside down for small niches that typically don't get whitelisted/exempted from the adverse impacts of algorithmic changes. Using their monopoly power, Google has decided what webpages should look like and what content they should have with panda. Too many ads above the fold, get a slap. Don't have a privacy policy? Get another slap. Then there is penguin, which defines how webmasters that like you should link to you and for those webmasters that do not like you how they can hurt you by linking to you. It's an algorithmic circle jerk with Google's webspam team beating their monkeys, which by the way may end up being one of their next algorithm nicknames.

The bottom line is that the serps in many niches are pure shit. By shit I mean not only thin content websites ranking or outdated html pages filled with rambling text, but also domain crowding. I'm in a niche where an extremely poorly spun article is ranking quite high on the first page and it is pure gibberish. Others can atest to this as well.

Some believe Google is adding all of these nonsense updates to stop link spam. Others, with their heads deeply embedded into Matt Cutt's butt believe it is to reward quality sites. I believe it is more complex and essentially serves as a means to coverup Google's aggressive takeover of organic search. While everyone is talking about pandas and penguins, Google is pushing organic search results beneath the fold and replacing them with paid ads. Google, with its hypocritical policies, says that you and I can't have too many ads above the fold but they can have 100% paid ads above the fold. Monopolies can exert such power. And by the end of the year we will see if the FTC is indeed Google's bitch like I think they are.

While everyone is talking about pandas and penguins, Google is pushing organic search results beneath the fold and replacing them with paid ads. Google, with its hypocritical policies, says that you and I can't have too many ads above the fold but they can have 100% paid ads above the fold.

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True, also google shopping which was free (and organic) has become a giant PPC substitute where you have to pay to play

THis is so true, the site I'm talking about has three major square ads above the fold and one of just txt that's mainly everything above the fold, and if you check what theme it's using it's called ctr theme, which I've found for free but that's basically telling google you built that website just for that, if you read the content on the site I'm talking about the only weird abnormality is that the guy has nonsensical words bolded which I've checked with different tools and the site doesn't even rank for and honestly I don't know if having a bajillion words bolded helps you move up in the SERPS. It doesn't have a lot of H tags or anything. I am seriously trying to figure out how the frick the owner got that site to show up as first just doing that. It's just completely ludacris to me.

Some believe Google is adding all of these nonsense updates to stop link spam. Others, with their heads deeply embedded into Matt Cutt's butt believe it is to reward quality sites. I believe it is more complex and essentially serves as a means to coverup Google's aggressive takeover of organic search. While everyone is talking about pandas and penguins, Google is pushing organic search results beneath the fold and replacing them with paid ads. Google, with its hypocritical policies, says that you and I can't have too many ads above the fold but they can have 100% paid ads above the fold. Monopolies can exert such power. And by the end of the year we will see if the FTC is indeed Google's bitch like I think they are.

I have a site which is linked from lifehacker, mashable and few other DIY sites. The backlinks are all voluntary and gets me lot traffic daily. The site is more than a year old and has sitelinks shown for almost all the main keywords. But google decided that a 5 month old domain with BS content, affiliate link and social bookmarks as backlinks is far more important than my site which has

a. More than 60 , 100% original articles that are helpful enough to get links from other authority sites.
b. Has tutorials and videos with more than few hundred thousand views.
c. Has custom software that is used and downloaded more than a few hundred times daily.
d. Has a bounce rate of of about 40% to 47%.

My main competitor for a micro niche site is number 1 on google and the site has only 1, yes ONE backlink and it's a freaking nofollow from a shitty website that also has PR 0, my competitor's site is also PR 0, how is this even possible?
It has no facebook likes, no tweeter tweets and no google plus add's.

And on who is, it says the domain is 8 months old.

How is this possible?, witchcraft maybe? lol no but really.

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It's not Google personalised results after a few views from yourself checking out the competition?

Well, honestly that doesn't really make sense, this site is literally rubbish. It even has spun content and as I've said before the only weird thing I notice it has a bunch of random words bolded, let's say that in a 500 word article it has around 250 bolded but random words like hello, it is, power, blahblah, but other than that his onsite SEO is not even good.

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